The Ultimate Fresh Start —The Year of Jubilee (Sacred Rhythms Part 5)

Sunday Livestream

31 Aug

YouTube Video of the Church Service

Ever felt completely trapped? Like you are drowning in debt, stuck in a job you hate, or locked into a situation with no way out?

Imagine the government announcing tomorrow that your mortgage is cancelled, student loans cleared, and credit card debt wiped out. If you're renting, you're given the keys to your own place for free. Sounds too good to be true, right?

But 3,500 years ago, God designed exactly this kind of system for an entire nation. And it wasn't a one-off - it happened every 50 years like clockwork. This was the Year of Jubilee, God's radical reset button for society. And this week, Sharon Edmundson opens up how this ancient practice helps us rethink freedom, forgiveness, and hope.

When Systems Trap People

Before we jump to solutions, we need to understand what Sharon refers to as the cycle trap. It is the trap that essentially enslaves us to a mortgage for 30 years, traps us in jobs we hate because we can't afford to leave and gets us stuck in poor housing because we can't afford better.

The ancient Israelites also understood this reality. Life happens, bad decisions get made, and circumstances change. As Sharon puts it, "People end up in debt for so many reasons - sometimes due to unwise choices, sometimes because of illness, disaster, or because the system is unfair and loaded against them."

God's response wasn't to shrug and say "that's their own fault." His response was revolutionary because He built hope into the very structure of society.

The Threefold Reset

God designed what Sharon calls a threefold rhythm of rest and restoration:

Weekly Sabbath - a weekly rest that couldn't be taken away.
Sabbath Year - every seven years, debts are forgiven and people are released.
Year of Jubilee - every 50 years, a complete societal reset.

Leviticus 25:10 describes this stunning system: "Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan."

This wasn't about racial oppression or treating people as property. This was more akin to what we'd call indentured service today, albeit with strict protections. You maintained your dignity, could buy your way out at any time, and crucially, it was never permanent. Every seven years, people were automatically released. Every 50 years in Jubilee, everyone was released regardless.

Compare that to our system. At least ancient Israelites knew there was always an end date to their desperation.

Your Personal Jubilee

Sharon challenged us to get honest about three areas where we might need our own jubilee reset:

Where are you with God? Not "are you being good enough?" but have you actually received the debt cancellation Jesus paid for? Or are you still trying to earn your way back into his good books? Because if you're still working off some spiritual overdraft, you're missing the point entirely.

What about relationships? Is there someone you need to forgive? Not because they deserve it, but because carrying that resentment is like staying chained to something that should have been cancelled years ago. Perhaps there's someone you've hurt and need to make amends.

How are you using what you've got? Your money, influence, and skills - are they just for you and yours? Or are they part of God's Jubilee for other people? If you have any influence at work, how are you using it? How are your actions affecting others and the environment?

From External to Internal Freedom

For years, looking at Sharon’s life from the outside, you'd think she was doing well - loving family, good job, beautiful location, enough money, free time. Yet inside, she was a mess. Her inner world was full of darkness.

That's where Jesus takes Jubilee to a whole new level. When Jesus began his ministry, he quoted Isaiah 61:1-2: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

These verses were connected to the Year of Jubilee. Jesus was saying that his ministry was ushering in a true jubilee that goes beyond economics to reach the heart of the problem—our hearts.

When Jesus died on the cross, he said, "It is finished" - in Greek, tetelestai, a word signifying that a debt has been fully paid. Just as debts in Jubilee were counted as fully paid, our debt to God for breaking his law of love has been cancelled completely.

Your Next Step This Week

Sharon wasn't calling for some massive life overhaul. Just one thing. One conversation, one decision, one act of generosity, one step towards the kind of freedom God designed for us and our community.

Maybe it's:

Having that conversation with God about receiving his forgiveness instead of trying to earn it
Writing down who you need to forgive (including yourself)
One practical step to help someone else find freedom
One change in how you use your influence or resources

Take five minutes this week - maybe with a coffee, maybe on a walk - and honestly think about these three areas.

The Big Picture

Jubilee isn't just about getting set free - it's about becoming the kind of people who help others find freedom too.

The Year of Jubilee was given to one nation in one place. Jesus opened it up to all people in all nations for all time. Where the ancient Jubilee was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Jesus offers everyday internal freedom with positive knock-on effects.

Liberation was written into God's calendar. No matter how bad things got, no matter how trapped people felt, they knew Jubilee was coming. With Jesus, that hope isn't just for every 50 years - it's for every single day.

A Question Worth Asking

What would change in your life if you truly believed that liberation is written into God's calendar for you? That no matter how trapped you feel right now, God's reset isn't just possible - it's promised?

He sees your suffering and refuses to let it be permanent. Your family isn't doomed to cycles of poverty, brokenness, or despair. The trumpet has already sounded. The debt has been paid. Freedom is available now.

May you experience your own taste of Jubilee this week - grace, rest, and restoration from God that overflows to those around you.

shaz
Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Well, hello and welcome to Crowd Church's non-live, live stream here in August. My name is Matt, and I just wanted to jump on here before we get into the talk and let you know what's going on. Now this isn't your usual Crowd service. Uh, and that, if I'm honest, is completely intentional. If you are a regular Crowd, you will have twigged that this isn't the usual live.
There's no, you know, no me fluffing lines or figuring out technical difficulties, or Anna laughing at me when I do 'cause something has gone completely wrong. Uh, and you definitely won't be getting Conversation Street today. But here's the thing, August for Crowd is different, isn't it? It's always different for everybody.
Uh, half of us usually are somewhere hot trying to forget what the weather's like back home, especially if you live in England. And the other half is wondering why we didn't book something ages ago. [00:01:00] Uh, so instead of pretending everything's normal, we've done something a bit different. Yes, we like to do the non-live, live streams in August where the whole team gets to rest.
And recuperate. Uh, but we obviously still want to put stuff out for people to connect with. And this year, our August talks, uh, are prerecorded as usual. The on live, live stream. You can watch them whenever you like. Whether that's Sunday morning with, you know, a cup of tea or Wednesday afternoon when you're avoiding doing something important.
Whenever we just might, uh, this August we're exploring something called sacred rhythms. Looking at how biblical festivals offers a completely different approach to rest, to celebration and actually living life. Well, I thought this would be a really good thing to study whilst we do our normal holidays.
Like what does the Bible have to say about taking a holiday? Uh, an inner culture that's obsessed with, you know, working ourselves into the ground and [00:02:00] then collapsing for two weeks somewhere with overpriced cocktails. Maybe just, maybe the Bible has a better way. Maybe there's some ancient celebration, uh, that knew something that we've forgotten about.
You know, like what does it actually mean to truly rest and to celebrate and to recover. So that's why we're doing this. So settle in. This one's just for you. No pressure to participate, no need to unmute yourself. Just space to think about how God might want to reshape the rhythms of your life. So let's dive in.
Sharon Edmundson: Do you like festivals or celebrations? A few months ago, my husband Matt and I went glamping at a family music festival in Yorkshire. It was a great time to slow down, enjoy the outdoors, meet new people, listen to music brows, browse through locally, created handicrafts and eat locally produced food.[00:03:00]
During August, we've taken some time to look at the festivals in the Old Testament. These festivals teach us about God's character and his love for us, lessons which are still relevant today. They also teach us some underlying principles to help us flourish individually and as as a society to illustrate just how radical the principles of some of these festivals can be.
I want you to imagine the following. Imagine the government announced that from tomorrow your mortgage will be canceled, your student loans cleared, credit card debt wiped out, and if you are renting, you get handed the keys to your own place for free. You'd probably think the government had lost the plot, wouldn't you?
It sounds too good to be true. But three and a half thousand years ago, God designed exactly this kind of system for an entire nation, and it wasn't a one-off. It happened every 50 years like clockwork. This was known as the year of Jubilee, God's radical reset button for society, and it's the festival we'll [00:04:00] be looking at today.
To be honest, when I was first given this topic to talk about, my heart sank because I've heard bits about Jubilee before and I kind of understood it, but on another level, I really didn't, it didn't excite me. But as I've studied it and wrestled with it, it's challenged me in so many ways and I've come to see some of the beauty and depth of what the Year of Jubilee is about.
The year of Jubilee was a special celebration in ancient Israel. That was to happen every 50 years, kind of like a reset for the whole nation. It was when a time when people got a fresh start, and I think that sounds amazing, but how did this actually work? How do you suddenly have a reset year that is just and fair and that doesn't cause everything to collapse?
I think it might only work if you built ideas of rest and reset into the heart of the nation, and I think that's what God did. [00:05:00] The year of Jubilee is described in Leviticus 25, and we'll look at the opening section through the chapter. Um, although the chapter goes into much more detail. So here it is. It says, count off seven Sabbath years.
Seven times seven years, so that the seven Sabbath years amount to a period of 49 years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere. On the 10th day of the seventh month on the day of Atonement. Sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
It shall be a jubilee for you. Each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The 50th year shall be a jubilee for you. Do not so, and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines for. It's a jubilee and it's to be holy for you. Eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
In this year [00:06:00] of Jubilee, everyone is to return to their own property. If that sounds a little confusing, let me explain. So the Sabbath mentioned is a weekly day of rest. The Sabbath year expanded this to a year of rest every seven years when it was not just for rest, but debts were forgiven and slaves were released.
The Jubilee, which happened every 50th year, it was not only a year of rest. But a year of complete reset as well, even more radical than the reset in the Sabbath year. And I'll explain that in more depth a little later. Um, we can see God built rest and reset into the heart of his people by giving them a chance to constantly practice it.
Now I need to pause here because I mentioned slaves, um, that slaves were released during the Sabbath year, and I think it's worth clarifying. The, um, what that actually means in context. [00:07:00] When we read the word slave in the Bible, our minds immediately go to the horrific transatlantic slave trade or mor modern human trafficking, and rightly so.
That kind of slavery is an absolute evil that God abor abhors. And there are some tricky passages and the Bible around slavery, but what I'm talking about here is something completely different. This wasn't about racial oppression or people being treated as property. This is more what we might call indentured s service today.
So if you are an ancient Israelite and things have gone badly wrong financially, maybe your business had failed, maybe there'd been a drought, maybe you've made some terrible decisions like, uh, my husband Matt did early on in his business ventures. Y you owe money. You simply can't, can't pay. Back. In our world, you might declare bankruptcy or have bailiffs turn up at your door, but in their world, you would choose to work for your creditor to pay off the debt, [00:08:00] you'd become their servant.
But with strict protections. The law said, um, that you had to be treated as a hired worker, not property. You kept your dignity. You could buy your way out anytime if you got the money or if your family got the money. And crucially, and this is massive, it can never be permanent. Every seven years, all um, of the Israeli slaves went free automatically and every 50 years.
And the year of Jubilee, everyone was released regardless of how long they'd been working. Compare that to our system today. How many people do you know who are essentially enslaved to their mortgage for 30 years or trapped in jobs they hate because they can't afford to leave or trapped in poor housing because they can't afford better?
At least the ancient Israelites knew that there was always an end date to their situation. God knew that even with the best intentions, people would end up in desperate situations. Life happens, bad [00:09:00] decisions get made. Circumstances change, stuff happens to us, and his response wasn't just to shrug and say, well, that's their own fault.
His response was to build hope into the very structure of society, no matter how bad things got, no matter how trapped you felt, you knew that Jubilee was coming. Liberation was written into the calendar. That's the heart of God, um, who sees people's suffering and refuses to let it be permanent. So every 49 years, every seven cycles of Sabbath years, a trumpet was sounded on the day of atonement, the most sacred day in the ancient calendar, dedicated to reflection, seeking forgiveness and renewing the relationship, be between God and his people.
The sounding of the trumpet signaled the start of the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. This was meant to be the year of complete reset, not just, um, of rest like [00:10:00] the the Sabbath year, but so much more. There are primary, uh, full primary features of the year of Jubilee, rest for the land, cancellation of debts, release of slaves, restoration of land to its original families.
What would you say are the reason that, reasons that people get into debt? Maybe you're in debt now. I often joke that I married Matt and his debt. The reason for his debts. Bucket. Loads of enthusiasm for business, but a teac cup's worth of wisdom and the teacup is a bit of a generous estimate. He will freely admit he made lots of stupid decisions.
It took us a few years of careful spending and saving, and a very generous gift from someone to get us out. Fortunately, now he mixes wisdom and experience with his enthusiasm for business. People end up in debt for so many reasons, sometimes due to unwise choices, sometimes because of illness, disaster, or because the system is [00:11:00] unfair and loaded against them.
The Bible recognizes this complexity showing that debt and poverty aren't always someone's fault, and God's laws protected those in needs from being trapped forever in your country. What happens if someone gets into serious debt? If you were an ancient Israelite, you could borrow money, um, and the, the lenders were forbidden from charging interest to fellow Israelites.
You could maybe pledge your belongings to security, but if you pledge clothes, they had to be given back to you at sunset so that you could keep warm. Someone wasn't allowed to take tools from you as collateral if they were needed for livelihood. The poor were not to be exploited or deprived of means of earning a living.
This gets us back to the subjects of slavery because if things got really desperate, you could sell yourself with your family members if needed. And, um, if you, if you did [00:12:00] this, you were to be treated as a hired worker. You or your family could buy yourself out of slavery any time if they had the means.
But if you couldn't afford that or was not lost because you knew that every 50 years. Once in a lifetime, all debts will be forgiven and all slaves would be freed. This would prevent a family being permanently stuck in a cycle of poverty. How would you feel if you knew that no matter how, how bad things got for you and your family in the future economically, that all was not lost because there was always the hope of restoration.
Your family would not be doomed to into poverty for the generations to come. The fourth point I mentioned is that the year of ju, in the year of Jubilee, there's also land restoration, which doesn't happen in the year of Sabbath. What was this about? When the rights first settled in the land at God's instruction, the land was divided between the tribes.
This land was then to be handed down the family line. The land would provide [00:13:00] a place for each tribe to live and a way to earn a living. If you got into serious debt, you could sell some of your land, but as the land was a means of feeding yourself, if you had less land, this could potentially lead to more poverty.
It would be a downward cycle, except that in the year of Jubilee, the land will be restored to its original owner. All these things together, the laws, the Sabbath, the Year of Sabbath, and the year of Jubilee, were meant as a blessing for the land and the people. They recognize that this, in this messy world, there are consequences for our own actions and the actions of other people against us.
But God's gracious and wants to rescue us from both. He doesn't want to see us slide into poverty and slavery. He wants each person to flourish. So why did God give all these laws and festivals? I've kind of, I've just said a little bit about that. But when Jesus was asked to sum up God's laws, he said this, [00:14:00] love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets. Hang on these two commandments. If we really love God, we'll love the things he loves and look after what he cares about. If we really love people, all people, not just our family, all the ones we like, we won't exploit them.
We won't want systems that keep people in poverty. We need all of these laws in place because we naturally look out for our own interests. We like to think we are good, but the Bible has this to say about us for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We often fail to keep our own standards, let alone gods.
How many of us think it's wrong when people lie to us, but quite easily lie to other people? We can have all the external freedom we desire, such as a good home, uh, a job with good [00:15:00] pay, a tax system that works in our benefit and systems that benefit those like us, and we can still be a slave on the inside.
I know what this feels like and I think many of you do too. For many, for many years it looked like from the outside. Um, well, if you looked at my life from the outside, you'd think that I was doing well. I had a family who loved me a good job. I lived in a beautiful part of the country near gorgeous beaches.
I had enough money and I had free time, and yet inside I was a mess. My inner world was full of darkness. And that's where Jesus takes the year of Jubilee to a whole new level. We started with the Sabbath. The next level is the year of Sabbath, and then the year of Jubilee builds on that, but Jesus takes it all further.
Jesus died his ministry by quoting these words from the prophet Isaiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. [00:16:00] He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Recovery of sight to the blind to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
These verses were connected to the year of Jubilee. Jesus was implying that. His ministry was ushering in a true jubilee, which goes beyond what had gone before. It would work beyond the socioeconomic and reach deeper levels. He was going to the heart of the problem, which is our hearts. When Jesus was on the cross dying for us, he said these words, it's, it is finished in Greek.
This is one word. I'm trying to remember how to pronounce it. Um, forgive my pronunciation is teti. It's a word that signifies that a debt has been fully paid just as debts in the year of Jubilee were counted as being fully paid what debt was [00:17:00] paid. It's the debt that we owe God for breaking his law of love.
He cleanses earth and makes us new on the inside. He gives us a sense of identity and purpose. He freezes from the things that ensnare us. He turns us from people who have to have our urges, cursed by laws to people who freely live by the law of love, powered by God's spirit. The year of Jubilee was given specifically to one nation in one geographical place.
Jesus opened it up to all people in all nations for all time going forward. The year of Jubilee was a once in a lifetime opportunity with Jesus. Jubilee is an everyday internal freedom that has positive knock on effects. Jubilee was a socioeconomic reset. Jesus gives us a spiritual reset, which if we keep connected with God and work in [00:18:00] partnership with him, has an outworking in resetting every area of life.
How we interact with our family, our friends and other people. How we do singleness or marriage and kids, how we do our jobs, where we choose to buy our food and clothes, how we look after the environment. The concept of Jubilee has led to some large scale global campaigns such as Jubilee 2000 and many smaller grassroot projects with a focus on wealth, distri wealth distribution, promote economic justice, and create sustainable communities.
So where does this leave us? I don't think God's calling us to lobby Parliament for a new Jubilee law, though honestly, it might not be the worst idea. But I do think he's inviting us into our own personal jubilee moments, and that starts with getting honest about where we actually are. I wonder if you could take five minutes this week, maybe with a coffee, maybe on a walk, and just think [00:19:00] about these, um, three areas of life.
First, where are you with God? I don't mean, are you being good enough? I mean, have you actually received that debt cancellation? Jesus paid for. Or are you still trying to earn your way back into his good books? Because if you're still working off some spiritual overdraft, you're missing the point entirely.
Uh, maybe you're not even at that point yet. Maybe you are still searching to work out if God exists or, um, if he does exist, who he is. Continue in that search. What's your next step? Or are you able to rest or are you enslaved to work? Others, other people's opinions, the desire for more stuff and keeping up with other people.
Is your sense of self-worth based on your job, your looks or achievements? Or are you able to rest in the knowledge that you are significant because you're made in God's image? [00:20:00] Do you work hard, whether that's paid, voluntary, or as a parent or carer, or are you lazy? So second, think about your relationship.
Is there someone you need to forgive? Not because they deserve it, but because carrying about that resentment is like staying chained to something that should have been canceled years ago. Or maybe there's someone you've hurt and you need to make it right. And third, this one might sting a bit. How are you using what you've got, your money, your influence, your skills?
Are they just for you and yours? Or are they part of God's Jubilee for other people? Are you treating people well or are your actions part of the wider problem? Are you storing up wealth just for your own benefit and using the resources you have only for your own pleasure and that of your family and friends?
Or are you using them to bless the wider community? If you have any influence at your job, [00:21:00] how are you using that influence? How are your actions affecting the environment? Are your actions taking into account the impact on the environment? I'm not talking about some massive life overhaul here. Just one thing.
Just one conversation, one decision, one act of generosity. One step towards the kind of freedom God designed for us and for our community. Because here's the thing about Jubilee. It's not just about getting set free, it's about becoming the kind of people who help others to find freedom too. May you experience your own taste of Jubilee this week, grace, rest, and restoration from God that overflows to those around you.
Be blessed and have a great week.
Matt Edmundson: Well, thank you so much for joining us, and there we are, the end of this particular talk. Now, if you're a regular Crowd, this is a [00:22:00] bit where we go into Conversation Street, but like I said at the start, we're not doing that during August in a, what we call the non-live live streams where the team is just taking some.
Well earned rest and just hang in with their families. Uh, but do stay with us as we talk about holidays and rhythms and rest throughout August. And maybe there's just a different way to the standard default. Maybe, you know, God's got an idea or two that we could learn from, you know, ways that God has designed life to perhaps work better for us.
I think he probably has. Uh, and maybe this week you want to try, you know, something from the talk. What stood out to you? It might not even be dramatic. It could be just a tiny step towards that kind of rhythm that actually brings you life rather than draining it. What is it gonna be? Uh, if you're still watching this, write it in the comments.
Um, even though we're not live, it's always good just to write things down. And of course you can reach us on our website at www [00:23:00] dot Crowd Church. Now we're gonna be back next Sunday, uh, with another talk. If it's in August, it's gonna be an on live, live stream. If this is the last talk in August or August, in August, we'll be back to, uh, the usual way of doing things in September.
But in August, do say stay with us as we continue journeying through the sacred rhythms. Uh, same time, same non-live stream approach. So that's it. Uh, but for now, wherever you are, where whatever living room, you're watching this or wherever you're on a beach on a plane, we don't mind. That's a beautiful thing about digital church.
Uh, just remember that rest isn't something you have to earn. It's something that God simply gives you. See you next [00:24:00] week.